Effect of Manganese Valence on Specific Capacitance in Supercapacitors of Manganese Oxide Microspheres

Manganese oxides have attracted great interest in electrochemical energy storage due to high theoretical specific capacitance and abundant valence states. The multiple valence states in the redox reactions are beneficial for enhancing the electrochemical properties. Herein, three manganese microspheres were prepared by a one-pot hydrothermal method and subsequent calcination at different temperatures using carbon spheres as templates. The trivalent manganese of Mn₂O₃ exhibited multiple redox transitions of Mn³⁺/Mn²⁺ and Mn⁴⁺/Mn³⁺ during the intercalation/deintercalation of electrolyte ions. The possible redox reactions of Mn₂O₃ were proposed based on the cyclic voltammetry and differential pulse voltammogram results. Mn₂O₃ microsphere integrated the advantages of multiple redox couples and unique structure, demonstrating a high specific capacitance and long cycling stability. The symmetric Mn₂O₃//Mn₂O₃ device yielded a maximum energy density of 29.3 Wh kg⁻¹ at 250 W kg⁻¹.     

Broad band controller design for remote vibration using a geometric approach

Over the past three decades, a wide variety of active control methods have been proposed for controlling problematic vibration. The vast majority of approaches make the implicit assumption that sensors or actuators can be located in the region where vibration attenuation is required. However this is either not feasible or prohibitively expensive for many large scale structures or where the system environment is harsh. As a result, optimal control of local vibration may lead to enhancement at remote locations. Controlling remote vibration using only local sensing and actuation is an important concept to resolve this remote vibration control problem. Recently, a geometric methodology that provides an approach for defining the design freedom available for reducing vibrations at both local and remote locations has been proposed by the authors. In an earlier paper, the fundamental results were used to develop design procedures for discrete frequency control; in the current paper, however, the focus is on design procedures for broad band control. A systematic approach is developed that provides an additional design constraint to the geometric methodology to ensure that the resulting compensator provides closed loop stability. The design procedure is illustrated through its application to an active vibration isolation structure.     

Propagation of Laguerre–Gaussian beams in cubic–quintic nonlinear media by variational approach

We analyze the propagation of Laguerre–Gaussian (LG) beams in a cubic–quintic nonlinear medium by using the variational method. For low intensities, the results are in good agreement with the results of a numerical simulation. The characteristics of LG beams in the nonlinear medium are explored and the electric field distribution in the far field after passing through the nonlinear medium is calculated.     

Crossing in the magnetic force-gap hysteresis curve of magnetic levitation systems with a high-Tc superconductor

For the magnetic levitation system consisting of a high-T_c superconductor and permanent magnet, the relation curve of magnetic force with gap between these two components is known as a hysteresis loop, that is, the approaching and departing portions envelop a complete one, and generally these two portions do not cross each other. However, in some special cases this crossing arises, and makes the complete loop broken. In this paper, by the numerical simulation of the magnetic force-gap curve in large numbers of physical and geometrical parameters, two typical crossings were found. To investigate the crossing and explore its physical causes, for one of the crossings, the current density in the superconductor was further calculated and its magnitude and vector distribution at the gaps nearby where the crossing arises were obtained. Based on these calculation results and an adequate discussion, the conclusion was induced that the crossing in the magnetic force-gap hysteresis curve results from applied magnetic field’s incomplete and insufficient penetrating in superconductor.     

Naiveté and sophistication in dynamic inconsistency

This paper introduces a general framework for dealing with dynamic inconsistency in the context of Markov decision problems. It decouples and examines concepts that are often entwined in the literature. It distinguishes between the decision maker and her various temporal selves, and between the beliefs and intentions of the selves. The creation of a unified formalism to deal with dynamic inconsistency allows for the introduction of a hybrid decision maker, who is naive sometimes, sophisticated at others. Such a hybrid decision maker can be used to model situations where type determination is endogenous. Interestingly, the analysis of hybrid types indicates that self-deception can be optimal.     

Aging properties of styrene-butadiene rubber nanocomposites filled with carbon black and rectorite

To better understand the effect of rectorite and carbon black (CB) on the aging performance of styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR), SBR/CB, SBR/CB/rectorite and SBR/rectorite nanocomposites with the same total filler loading were prepared. The microstructure of the three SBR nanocomposites was characterized by XRD, TEM and SEM. After thermal aging, oxygen-containing molecules were found to be formed in the SBR nanocomposites, as verified by FTIR analysis. The SBR/rectorite nanocomposite showed the highest aging coefficient and the lowest change rate of tensile strength and stress at 100% strain among the three SBR nanocomposites, indicating that the introduction of nano-dispersed rectorite layers can enhance the thermal aging resistance of the nanocomposites. For the SBR/CB/rectorite nanocomposite, the addition of CB helped to improve the interfacial compatibility between the filler and matrix, resulting in the best crack resistance as the aged SBR/CB/rectorite nanocomposite always demonstrated the least cracks on the surface during either stretching or bending experiments.     

Ultrasound irradiation effect on morphology and size of two new potassium coordination supramolecule compounds

Two new potassium coordination supramolecular compounds (2D and 1D), [K(H₃L)(H₂L)(H₂O)]_n·H₂O (1) and [K(H₂L′)(HL′)(H₂O)₂]·H₂O (2), (L = 1,3,5-tricarboxylic acid, L′ = 2,6-pyridinedicarboxylic acid), have been synthesized under different experimental conditions. Micrometric crystals (bulk) or nano-sized materials have been obtained depending on using the branch tube method or sonochemical irradiation. All materials have been characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), FT-IR spectroscopy and elemental analyses. Single crystal X-ray analyses on compounds 1 and 2 show that K⁺ ions are 3- and 7-coordinated, respectively. Additionally, H-bonds incorporate the layers and chains in 1 and 2 into 3D and 2D (along (0,0,1) direction) frameworks. Topological analysis shows that the compound 1 and 2 are 3,6-coordinated kgd and 2,4-coordinated 2,4C4 net. The thermal stability of compounds 1 and 2 in bulk and nano-size has been studied by thermal gravimetric (TG) and differential thermal analyses (DTA) and compared each other. The role of different parameters like temperature, reaction time and ultrasound irradiation power on the growth and morphology of the nano-structures are studied. Results suggest that an increase of temperature, sonication power and reduction of reaction time led to a particle size decrease.     

Optical results of the black hole microquasar SS 433

We present optical spectroscopic observations of SS 433 during different precessional and orbital phases. Our 2004, 2007 and 2008 data provide us a good chance to study the variability of the Hα line at different orbital phases for nearly the same disk inclination. The data show that the Hα of SS 433 usually had a symmetric profile between orbital phases 0.25–0.75, while an asymmetric structure with a strong red peak was observed for other orbital phases. We suggest that the orbital variability of Hα emission is connected with accretion flow from the donor star to the accretion disk. In addition, we attribute the dramatic increase of Hα emission during our 2007 observational run, which had a time scale of one day, to the emergence of strong jets.